A Different Kind of Therapy
by Enomys
Summary: Zuko and Momo share a touching moment, because they never do in show. Zuko resorts to animals again for therapy. Takes place just before the Southern Raiders episode.


Toph dashed towards the gate, sliding through the gap underneath as it slowly closed. She stood up on the other side as the gate hit the ground with a thud. She smiled and tucked the copyrights to the Avatar series in the waistband of her outfit, and started to walk away, humming softly to herself. Then she stopped and cocked her head to the right: a strange sound was coming from that direction. It started out low and gained in decibels until the whole street could hear:

"DANG IT! WHERE THE HECK ARE THE COPYRIGHTS TO AVATAR!?!"

The voice quieted for a second, and then it started again: "TOPH!!!!!"

Toph laughed out loud and started to walk away again, muttering smugly to herself: "Don't worry Scribbler, I'm just taking these back to where they belong."

P.S. I don't own Avatar: the Last Airbender

**A Different Kind of Therapy**

The campsite was clear of food scraps, a near miracle after a lunch attended by Sokka. Try as he might, Momo couldn't find even a crumble of Sokka's blubbered seal jerky. He slunk around the campsite through the waving grass, his ears the only giveaway to his presence. Unfortunately for him, the bugs had all departed from the area as well, so Momo had nothing to eat. He sat straight up in disappointment, and hope that possibly a fly would pass by. His keen eyes noticed a stray leechee nut by the campfire. He hesitated for a moment, though: there was a person next to that nut. Zuko was curled in an upright fetal position with his arms wrapped around his knees. He was staring deeply into the flickering light of a small fire that he had probably just created. Momo crept closer, hoping maybe to steal the nut away without being noticed: he didn't know whether Zuko was friend or foe. The lemur closed in on the reddish-brown nut, and, grasping it in his paws, he prepared to make a break for it. But he made the mistake of looking up, and instead got paralyzed by the golden eyes of the Fire Nation prince.

* * *

Zuko stared at the animal. What a strange creature! It was probably the last of its kind, like Aang, the last of the airbenders. Were those wings attached to the monkey-thing's arms? Anyway, what was it doing here? Why wasn't it hanging around Aang? Zuko looked down at the lemur's arms. Oh. That was why: it was hungry. And by the looks of things, it liked leechee nuts. Zuko looked at his unclenching fist, which revealed an ample supply of the leechee nuts, which Zuko did not like. For some reason the lemur was still watching Zuko, slowly nibbling on the nut. Zuko blinked. Momo blinked. Zuko slowly reached out his arm, opening his fist to reveal a nut. The lemur hesitated only a second before he grabbed the nut and began to nibble it greedily.

"I wish I was like you," Zuko told the creature, "Everyone likes _you._"

Momo blinked again. He had finished the nut, and was staring at Zuko's hands.

Zuko handed out another nut, and sighed as Momo began to devour the food.

"How in the world do you do it?" Zuko demanded of the lemur. The lemur just looked back up at him with wide eyes.

"Duh. You're cute. So if you do something wrong, everyone just forgives you."

Momo stared back at the human. Did it have more of those delicious nuts?

Zuko handed out another round of nuts, and began to speak again.

"I wish I could make it up to Katara. Everyone else has seemed to accept me. But I don't know what to do!" he exclaimed.

He threw his hands up to the skies in frustration. Momo chittered from surprise, and Zuko immediately calmed down so as to avoid startling the creature further. After a couple of agonizing minutes, Momo crept back to Zuko's side (if only with the encouraging promise of more leechee nuts).

"She just won't accept me. I've worked hard to prove to her that I've changed, but she is so blinded by hate that she won't see the truth," groaned Zuko bitterly.

Momo blinked again. When was the human going to hand him another leechee nut?

Zuko handed out a couple more to the famished lemur. Then he continued to think about his own problems.

"Maybe I could help her by assisting with dinner every night?" Zuko looked at Momo, who blinked. "No, that's too paltry. Maybe I could…no, that's no good…"

Zuko's voice trailed off. Momo had finished his food again, but this time Zuko didn't notice, so Momo crawled up into his lap. Startled by the sudden extra warmth, Zuko looked down to see Momo curled in a ball on his lap. Zuko had seen what the Aang did when Momo crawled into his lap, and wondered if that was the lemur wanted. Hesitantly, Zuko scratched Momo gently behind the ears. Momo chittered happily, then looked up into Zuko's eyes.

"Sorry, but I don't have more of those leechee nuts."

Momo suddenly jumped off of Zuko's lap, and looked back while showing his disgust by chittering angrily.

"Hey!" exclaimed Zuko. Momo scampered off. "Fair-weather friends…" he grumbled, getting up. "Well, I better get moving…I don't want to be a casualty of Katara's anger."

And with that, he stood up, dusted himself off, and sulked out of the camp.

* * *

Zuko never really interacts with Momo in the show. Everyone else does, but he doesn't. I wanted to see what would happen if he did. So I wrote it! Review if you like it, and review if you don't.


End file.
